Making Tracks
by fistfulsofwords
Summary: Sam and Andy, a late night walk in a snowy park, and pure fluffiness. I wrote this for my RB Secret Santa over on tumblr and thought you guys might enjoy it as well! Enjoy!


Disclaimer: Rookie Blue does not belong to me.

A/N: I just wanted to say thank you for all of the lovely reviews/favorites/follows! I was a little tentative about posting my writing for the world to see, but the support has been amazing and so encouraging.

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"I can't believe you dragged me to that movie."

"I didn't _drag_ you. You were the one who suggested it."

"No, I asked if you wanted to go to the movies. I never said anything about some sappy chick flick."

"Sam, it wasn't a chick flick. It was a feel-good Christmas movie that happened to have some romance in it. What's wrong with romance?"

Sam pinched the top of his nose between his eyebrows briefly and then flipped the turn signal. "There's nothing wrong with romance. There's everything wrong with a woman who has nothing else going for her except her desperation for a boyfriend. It's a bit pathetic."

Andy narrowed her eyes at the window thoughtfully and then said, "Yeah, it _is _pathetic. But the love story was cute and it was funny. A movie doesn't have to have some deep meaning behind it. It's just entertainment."

"I like a story with a little meat."

"Yeah, yeah," Andy waved her hand dismissively. "You and your political movies. And _Moby Dick_." She grinned cheekily at him and he shook his head at her. She _had_ to bring that up?

Sam turned down the street next to the park, less than a mile from his place. He was looking forward to making some coffee and curling up with Andy on the couch to ward off the December chill. Maybe he could catch the end of the Leafs game…

"Sam, stop the car!"

He slammed on the brakes, feeling the brake pedal shudder as the ABS kicked in on the slick snow. "What?"

Andy was turned toward the window to look at the park. "Look," she breathed. Her breath fogged up the window and she rubbed the condensation away with her sleeve.

"What am I looking at?"

Andy turned toward him, a look of disbelief on her face. Sam suspected it had something to do with his not seeing what was apparently so obvious. Her eyes were twinkling though, a look of excitement lighting up her face.

Sam raised an eyebrow at her and said, "What is it, McNally?"

"Pull into the park. Please?"

Sam sighed and then did what she said. "You've gotta stop yelling at me to stop the car while I'm driving. You'll get us in an accident one of these days."

"No we won't. I trust you."

Sam parked the car and turned to her, having felt the weight of her words. She hadn't said them lightly and it did something funny to his heart when he'd heard them. She already had her seatbelt off, but she turned to face him, too. She looked him in the eye, cementing the truth with her gaze. They stayed like that for a moment, communicating silently, until the side of Andy's mouth quirked up and she said, "Do you trust me?" This time, the words were playful.

"Of course," Sam mimicked her tone, but he knew that she felt the truth of his words to match her own.

Andy nodded and then opened her door, letting the winter air flood the truck. She got out and shut the door, beckoning to Sam as she walked up to the curb.

Sam shook his head, amused, and got out of the truck too, shrugging deeper into his coat as he did. It was _freezing_. God, the things he did for her…

When Sam reached Andy, she held her out and he took it, feeling her mitten-clad fingers wrap tightly around his bare ones, warming them. She led him across the park towards the playground. There was no one here due to the late hour, and the park was quiet. The falling snow and the many inches of it covering the ground deadened the city noise. Sam had lived in the city his entire life, but he still thought the lack of noise every snowfall was eerie. The orange light of the city was diffused into the atmosphere by the snow, creating a soft glow all around them. The effect lit up the park as if it were daytime, even without streetlights.

Andy came to a stop at the edge of the playground, looking out over the sports fields. She breathed out, her breath forming a thick cloud of steam in the air. Sam watched her face in the soft orange light. She was at peace in this cold winter night, standing in the middle of a park.

"Look at it," Andy breathed. "Completely untouched. Perfect snow."

"It's beautiful," Sam agreed. He wasn't looking at the snow, though.

Andy turned to him, a grin spreading across her face. "Now we get to mess it up."

"What?" Sam was bewildered at her sudden mood change.

"Come on!" And Andy took off running across the field, her footsteps forming in the previously untouched snow. Her hair streamed out from under her hat and swung around when she turned to look back at him, smiling. She stood a few hundred yards away from him, but Sam could still see her face, shadowed in the orange and gray light, her teeth a bright spot of light as she grinned.

Sam stepped forward and matched his footsteps next to the trail Andy had left. Boot-shaped depressions littered the snow behind him in rows of four. When Sam reached Andy, she was still grinning breathlessly.

"What's the point of this?" Sam asked with a slightly teasing grin on his face. He couldn't be grumpy. Not with her looking up at him with that expression on her face.

Andy held her arms out and swept them out to indicate the field. "We just made footsteps in untouched snow. Don't you get some satisfaction out of that?"

Sam shrugged, still smiling. "Not really. It's just snow."

Andy shook her head. "Messing up. Breaking the rules. Following your instincts. You love this kind of stuff."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "It's just snow, McNally," he repeated.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Didn't you ever play in the snow as a kid?"

Sam thought for a moment, and then, "Maybe when I was younger. But I don't really remember," he said truthfully. Andy's face fell for a split second, and Sam thought that she was going to play the pity party. It didn't happen regularly with Andy, because she knew he wouldn't want to talk about his childhood—or lack thereof—but Sam hated when that look crossed her face. There was nothing he needed pitying for.

But Andy surprised him and a moment later, her grin was back in place. She bent down and started gathering snow in her hands. She stood up and said, "It's never too late to start," and before Sam could put together her words and actions, a snowball had thumped into his chest.

Sam stared at Andy in shock, taking in her gleeful grin. When she bent down to gather more snow, Sam backed up and bent down to get his own snowball. If she wanted to pick fights, he wasn't going to sit back and take it.

Sam stood to throw his snowball, but another hit him in the leg, and then another in the arm before he could launch his own. Andy ducked and Sam's missed, flying over her lowered shoulder.

"Gotta be quicker than that, old man!" Andy taunted.

Sam picked up more snow and this time, it hit Andy in the stomach while she was busy laughing. Sam smirked at her and then backed away again when she set her face. Now it was war.

The couple launched snowball after snowball at each other and a few minutes later, they were out of breath and their cheeks were flushed a deep red. Andy's hair was wet with melted snow and her fingers were numb underneath the fabric of her mittens. The tips of Sam's fingers were red, but he continued to make snowballs and throw them at her, determined not to lose, even if it was a snowball fight.

Andy was laughing too hard to do anything else and Sam took advantage of her vulnerability and threw multiple snowballs at her before running up and tackling her to the ground. They landed in the snow with a muted thud, cold instantly seeping into their clothes. Both were laughing.

Sam laid on his back next to Andy, both catching their breath. They looked up at the sky, muted orange, blue and gray staring back at them. It was still snowing, and the flakes fell onto their damp faces, cooling them off. Andy closed her eyes to protect them from the falling snow. Sam turned his head and looked over at her. Serenity washed over her features, and the effect it had on Sam was similar. He rarely experienced "perfect" moments, but ever since he and Andy had reconciled and finally decided to be together without holding back anything, those moments had been much more frequent. It was a cliché, but it really did feel like the world stopped spinning and that they were the only two people in existence. And in this particular moment, they could have been two tiny figures in a snow globe, the soft light filtering through the water and the snow swirling and falling gently to the ground. Sam watched Andy's face and felt for the object that had been in his pocket for weeks. He'd been sitting on it, trying to figure out the best time to give it to her. And now, it seemed, the perfect moment had made its appearance. So Sam took the opportunity.

"Andy," He said softly. She turned her head to look at him, a lazy smile spreading across her face. She looked at him with so much love, and it simultaneously encouraged Sam and made him that much more nervous.

"Yeah?" She responded in a whisper.

They were still laying down, which was not exactly how Sam had imagined this moment, but it seemed right. Sam took her hand, sinking his cold fingers into her mittens. She squeezed back.

"Will you marry me?" Sam did his best to convey everything with his eyes. Every single ounce of love that he had for her, which, incidentally, filled up his whole body. And four words, or three little ones, could never explain all of it. But he tried to show her with his eyes.

A flash of shock crossed her face and widened her eyes, and then a smile worked its way onto her face and a short, breathless laugh of disbelief escaped her. She sat up in the snow, still holding Sam's hand and she said, "Sam Swarek, I know you know how to propose to a girl properly." She was still smiling, though, and Sam thought he knew her answer, regardless of her making him go through the motions.

So Sam stood up, pulling Andy with him. They stood under the muted orange sky, with snow falling softly around them. Their breath rose in the air in clouds of steam. Sam pulled the ring box out of his jacket pocket and knelt down on one knee in front of the woman he loved and swore to love the rest of his life, whether she wore his promise on her hand or not.

"Andy McNally, I love you. Will you marry me?" There was more that he needed to say. Hundreds upon thousands of words to express everything she meant to him. But there would be time for that. A whole lifetime together, if she said yes.

She did. And after Sam had slid the ring onto her finger, and Andy had reached up to kiss him sweetly with a thousand promises, they walked back to the car, impatient to get home to the warmth of their bed.

Sam looked back at the lumpy, messed up snow, the product of two bodies moving around each other, only to come together in the flat depression that had been made when they'd fallen together. And he looked ahead at the clean, untouched path that Andy had insisted they take, in order to mess up the pure white landscape even more. And he realized that it wasn't just about snow. Messing up something perfect was half the fun of anything and he was more than happy to put footprints in the path ahead of him, as long as Andy was by his side.


End file.
